From the 1860s to the 1920s it is estimated that at least 2000 cameleers reached Australia from their homelands in Afghanistan, Baluchistan and other provinces in the region of north-western India (now Pakistan), and more than 20,000 camels were imported. It is a sobering fact that, until preparations for the recent 'Muslim Cameleers' exhibition at the South Australian Museum began in 2005, no Australian museum had directed its collecting efforts to material culture or documents relating to the cameleers.